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Was there at any point wweaker you thought the stories got weaker and past its sell by date.

Pretty much everything after season three. Season four is pretty awful for the most part and the oen after that is a mixed bag. Some of my favourite episodes are from around there but it's at that point that you feel the show has become somewhat formulaic. You watch an episode and five minutes in you figure out what the twist is going to be and then you kinda just watch it unfold.

My favourite episodes:
1. The Obsolete Man
2. Number 12 Looks Just Like You
3. The Eye of the Beholder
4. The Midnight Sun
5. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

One of my friends mentioned it so I just ended up revisiting the 4th series of The Thick of It. So many great lines, so many fantastic moments. Best British comedy of recent years by far. Going to take a little bit of getting used to Capaldi in Dr Who, his Tucker is just mesmerising.

These past weeks I marathoned Breaking Bad, fully expecting to hate Skyler.
I don't get the hate she gets. Her downward spiral seems pretty damn realistic and well written to me. I can empathise with her struggles.

Also, what's the deal with Meth Damon? He looks so much like Bourne, I'm confused every time he's on screen.

The hate for Skyler makes sense if you reason in that people are 'rooting' for Walt and she, essentially, is anti-Walt. It just so happens that that includes anti-crime, murder, endangerment to himself and family and a variety of other things, facts that some people don't seem to grasp. Instead, she's that 'bitch' that stops Walt from having all the fun. By the recent set of episodes, I'd almost be inclined to say her behaviour is probably in line with someone suffering from Stockholm's Syndrome.

The hate for Skyler makes sense if you reason in that people are 'rooting' for Walt and she, essentially, is anti-Walt. It just so happens that that includes anti-crime, murder, endangerment to himself and family and a variety of other things, facts that some people don't seem to grasp. Instead, she's that 'bitch' that stops Walt from having all the fun. By the recent set of episodes, I'd almost be inclined to say her behaviour is probably in line with someone suffering from Stockholm's Syndrome.

I actually can see why people dislike Skyler to be honest and I don't think it is because people follow Walt and she gets in the way. Its because she is a shrill wife stereotype that throughout the seasons of one to three was completely inconsistent and was way to whiny even at the start. She has gotten better though as a character but yeah her character wasn't the best during the years.

This drama is divided into two sections. First session containing 5 episodes was concluded two weeks ago, involving our heroic elite banker Hanzawa Naoki, being framed for mistakenly approving a JPY0.5B loan to a financially troubled steel work in Osaka, successfully recovered this bad loan and uncovered the financial fraud committed by his superior, West Osaka branch chief Tadasu Asano who conspired with the bankrupting steel work owner Mitsuru Higashida to extort fund from the Tokyo Central Bank (again, this "Central" does not indicate this is a central bank in functionality, and of course, everything in the drama is fictional, but inspired by real society, no doubt). With this unthinkable achievement Hanzawa was promoted to the bank's HQs' core. His team in the West Osaka branch was happily dissolved with everyone being promoted to higher positions they had longed for, pursuing for the brighter futures they earned.

After one week's recess, the drama entered its second section, one year after the 1st section's event. Tokyo Central Bank was under government's financial regulatory department's audit which everyone knew well to themselves, was actually to cover an investigation concerning a JPY20B problematic loan to a hotel group 伊勢島. It was problematic out of the concern of a rumor that the group just suffered a heavy financial loss of JPY12B out of some "operational issue", substantially jeopardized its loan repaying capability. The original person-in-charge Takahiro Tokieda of the loan project was subsequent removed from the project and transferred to a non-banking subsidiary, which essentially meaning the end of his career prospect. The bank's CEO directly appointed Hanzawi to recover the loan, obviously out of admiration of his unthinkable achievement in the 1st section. To this Hanzawi was shocked "There are two more zeros after the sum of 0.5B, how will I come to CEO's attention?!" Yet this was direct order so Hanzawi had to take the assignment.

The trouble of bank was very deep, since if the bank was deemed unable to recover this loan, and the hotel group was deemed near bankrupting, the bank had to prepare over JPY100B for reserve. The Tokyo Central Bank might itself be forced into bankruptcy.

To make things more interesting, the officer-in-charge of the audit was Shunichi Kurosaki, who had been in odd with Hanzawa due to their fierce competition over Mitsuru Higashida's hidden treasure since Mitsuru also committed tax evasion, and Shunichi lost the competition. Shunchi struggled to claim the very same asset Hanzawa was after to cover the evaded tax. I don't know much about this kinda legislation (be it in Japan or over here), but obviously according to the drama, creditor who could locate the piece of asset first could claim it up to the owed amount was fulfilled. To make thing worse, Shunichi was infamous for his hostility towards financial institutes, even forced into bankruptcies some very large banks. That's the main reason he was temporarily transferred to internal revenue department in 1st section of the drama. Stingy Shunichi met Hanzawa again with great hostility at the end of 1st ep of the 2nd section, "Long time no see, Hanzawa." in front of CEO and other directors of the bank. So, things is getting very interesting.

Turns out someone from the hotel group had secretly reported to the bank's branch's loan department chief (same position held by Hanzawa in another branch before his job in HQs) foxy Norio Kozato originally responsible for the loan (I don't know how to translate the place's name, but it's somewhere within Tokyo), that the hotel group just lost JPY12B out of stock speculation. Yet after Norio filed a report on this to the branch's chief Ikuo Kaise, Ikuo turned this mole to the hotel group, and while they should have in their capacity, failed to pass this essential information to Takahiro. Ikuo also ordered Norio not to let any others be aware of this dark little secret. There was another bank, the White Water Bank, which stopped their loan to the hotel group out of this secret report. This could be another fund extortion like the one in the 1st section of the drama, and Takahiro became the scapegoat. So it's left to Hanzawa to uncover another betrayal to the bank he was working for. He also sought to pursue justice for his good friend Takahiro who was framed for the responsibility of this loan. So, would Hanzawa succeed in pursuing justice for his friends and save the bank, or would he simply lose everything in this struggle?

Last week's episode, 1st of the 2nd section, was exceptionally touching while Hanzawi encouraged one of his old friends Naosuke Kondo who was expelled from the Tokyo Central Bank, brought him back to the fight for their careers.

So after hearing a lot of good things about Luther I finally got around to watching the first series.

Once I'd got past Idris Elba not putting on an American accent I started enjoying myself. I don't think it's as good as some people have made it out to be. It has almost all the cliched cop show stereotypes in the book; the tortured detective, the big boss who thinks he's a loose cannon, the direct boss who is giving him one last chance and always gets talked round by his schemes, the rookie cop who is in awe of his methods, the slow methodical complaints guy that you're supposed to hate but is clearly just doing his job, the failing relationship with his wife, his amoral Moriarty like nemesis etc etc. Yet somehow despite this it remains entertaining viewing. Most of the actors do a fantastic job, the villains of the week are creepy (and wonderfully absurd) and make the chase compelling, the pacing and plotting is tight. The bits with his wife and her lover in the early episodes are the weakest (they couldn't be bothered giving them even stereotypical characteristics, so just serve as plot dispensers occasionally dispatching ridiculously stilted dialogue that is meant to convey massive dramatic impact but is so bare bones that it's just gloriously bizarre).

I'm definitely going to watch the next couple of series at some stage but I'd say that it's good rather than essential television. It's bold and brash and a little bit silly but doesn't pretend to be otherwise and for that I really enjoyed it.

So that was the last episode of Futurama...errrm, again. Whilst I don't think it was quite as good as the first last episode, The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings, it had its heart in the right place and had a good mix of comedy and feeling. I do think Devil's Hands mixed the two a lot better, as well as generally speaking being a better constructed episode, but there was some good stuff in there. Almost tempted to watch it again and count to 10 seconds every time (this will make sense if you watch it) as I'm sure it's the kind of thing they'd have actually implemented.

Oh. Whilst it was never as consistently good as before it was cancelled, Futurama will take some beating to be replaced as my favourite show. Whilst I think there are generally better shows out there, something about Futurama just did it for me. Even after it was brought back, there's been enough good episodes to justify its return and even the mediocre ones have been pleasant. At this point, I'm not sure if I'd want it to come back or not. I think I've had my fill and that that's fine.

If the opening shot of the next episode isn't the bullet riddled corpses of Hank & Gomie being buried in a hole credulity will have been full stretched. It was bad enough that Walt was in a truck car being peppered with FMJ, knowing that he has to survive, but H&G not being turned into mincemeat from that much ordinance was F'ing ridiculous. Seriously stepped over the line into TWD can't hit a barn door when it's humans territory with that stuff.

Hahaha. I feel like that's summed up most of the recent set of episodes.

Originally Posted by Labbes

To be frank, I thought the ending of the most recent BB episode was a bit pants. Spoilers: How do they not hit anyone? It's like they're doing it on purpose. (End spoilers).

It does stretch it a little thin, but I think there's a way you could just about explain it, just. [spoiler]As abhorrent as the neo-Nazis may be, they're not going to kill officers of the law. That just won't be their thing. Shoot to injure? Sure, I can buy that. Do they require that much ordnance? Well, quite. As for why Hank and Gomez couldn't hit anything? Well, they were shooting into cover as well as mostly laying down covering fire. It's not at all a stretch to believe that a DEA vehicle will also have reinforced construction too.[/spoiler] I'm not saying it's a full-proof explanation, but I'm saying that's enough for me.